Data Feed for September 26, 2017

Key stats you need to know about today

No Cash Needed: Consumers in China are ditching cash with some speed. A new report from WeChat Pay, the digital payment system offered by the popular messaging platform, found that roughly 84% of WeChat users were fine with leaving the house without any physical currency. And 14% said they had completely dispensed with using cash at all.

Uber Effect: Assuming government intervention against taxi industry disruptors like Uber doesn't reverse steadily growing ride-sharing service usage worldwide, the number of drivers toiling for such services should double in the next five years, according to an estimate by Juniper Research. The global ride-sharing service driver tally is projected to grow nearly 15% annually over the next five years, rising from 4.3 million in 2017 to 8.6 million by 2022.

Bedded Behavior: Nearly two-thirds (65%) of millennials in Great Britain look at their smartphone within 5 minutes of waking, and 60% do the same within 5 minutes of going to sleep, according to a study by the UK's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). Millennials' peak time for smartphone usage is between 6:30 and 7:30 in the evening, with 44% of them doing so during that period, the study found.